LONG BEACH, N.Y. and NAPLES, Fla., July 05, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Planet Payment, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLPM), a leading provider of international and multi-currency payment processing services, and ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ:ACIW), a leading global provider of real-time electronic payment and banking solutions, today announced the launch of UnionPay International’s SecurePlus, the latest in UnionPay’s solution set, that will now enable the acceptance of UnionPay debit and credit cards online, with several significant enhancements.

UnionPay is one of the largest bankcard associations in the world, with over 6.5 billion cards issued worldwide. According to the Nilson Report, over 38 billion transactions were made on UnionPay cards in 2016, making it the third-most used card brand in the world.1

With the launch of SecurePlus, several key features differentiate it from existing solutions. For example, SecurePlus allows for the acceptance of both credit and debit cards without a re-direct to a UnionPay Hosted Payment Page. UnionPay’s existing solution, SecurePay, allows for debit and credit card acceptance; however, the user is re-directed to a payment page hosted by UnionPay. This can cause significant friction due to internet issues, Chinese fire-wall, browser issues, timeouts, etc., resulting in decreased approval rates. Ecommerce merchants are also reticent to implement payment types that remove the customer from their checkout pipeline. Another existing UnionPay solution, ExpressPay, is in-line and does not require a redirect; however, it only allows for the acceptance of credit cards, a small percentage of the aggregate cards issued when including debit cards.

SecurePlus has the benefit of debit cards and credit cards, while still being in-line, removing friction and making it more palatable to merchants. SecurePlus also supports transaction tokenization and recurring payments, and can offer 100% protection from fraud chargebacks, a significant concern for merchants selling cross-border. With ACI and Planet Payment’s SecurePlus offering, merchants will also be able to price and sell goods in multiple currencies, such as Chinese Renminbi, Hong Kong Dollars, US Dollars and Singapore Dollars.

“ACI Worldwide is excited to work with Planet Payment to be one of the first to bring UnionPay’s SecurePlus to market,” said Wolfgang Berner, VP Product Line Manager at ACI Worldwide. “This solution is a great benefit to our merchants—generating considerable interest in the travel and airline space—by helping them to more effectively access billions of UnionPay credit and debit cardholders with a seamless checkout process.”

“We are pleased to work with ACI and UnionPay International to be one of the first to launch SecurePlus,” said Paul Levine, Senior Vice President, Planet Payment. “This elegant solution will help merchants more effectively target the APAC market with its friendly consumer experience. Additionally, merchants can accept all cards, while still providing services like recurring payments, one-click payments and tokenization services.”

ABOUT UNIONPAY INTERNATIONAL

UnionPay International (UPI) is a subsidiary of China UnionPay focused on the growth and support of UnionPay’s global business. In partnership with more than 1500 institutions worldwide, UnionPay International has enabled card acceptance in 162 countries and regions with issuance in 42 countries and regions. UnionPay International provides high quality, cost effective and secure cross-border payment services to the world’s largest cardholder base and ensures convenient local services to a growing number of global UnionPay cardholders and merchants.

ABOUT PLANET PAYMENT

Planet Payment is a leading provider of international payment processing and multi-currency processing services. We provide our services in 23 countries and territories across the Asia Pacific region, North America, the Middle East, Africa and Europe, primarily through our 70+ acquiring bank and processor customers. Our point-of-sale and e-commerce services help merchants sell more goods and services to consumers, and together with our ATM services, are integrated within the payment card transaction flow enabling our acquiring customers, their merchants and consumers to shop, pay, transact and reconcile payment transactions in multiple currencies, geographies and channels.

Planet Payment is headquartered in New York and has offices in Atlanta, Beijing, Bermuda, Delaware, Dubai, Dublin, London, Hong Kong, Mexico City, Shanghai and Singapore. Visit www.planetpayment.com for more information about the Company and its services.

Product roadmaps are for informational purposes only and may not be incorporated into a contract or agreement. The development release and timing of future product releases remains at ACI’s sole discretion. ACI is providing the following information in accordance with ACI's standard product communication policies. Any resulting features, functionality, and enhancements or timing of release of such features, functionality, and enhancements are at the sole discretion of ACI and may be modified without notice. All product roadmap or other similar information does not represent a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making a purchasing decision.

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